An Ohio bill that would have imposed the most stringent restriction on abortions in the nation met its end Tuesday.

Senators don’t plan to vote on the so-called “heartbeat bill” before the end of the legislative session next month, Republican Senate President Tom Niehaus said, citing concerns the resulting law might have been found to be unconstitutional.

The bill proposed banning abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy. It had fiercely divided Ohio’s anti-abortion community, while energizing abortion rights proponents who protested against it.

Backers hoped the stringent nature of the bill would provoke a legal challenge with the potential to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

Ohio Right to Life, the state’s largest and oldest anti-abortion group, and many state lawmakers expressed concern the limit would be unconstitutional – jeopardizing other abortion limits in Ohio and expanding access to legal abortions.

The measure initially had stalled in both chambers as leaders sought legal advice as to whether the bill could withstand a court challenge. It passed the House in June and had remained pending in the Senate since.

Its demise Tuesday marked the end of one of the noisiest lobbying efforts in recent state memory.

One crowded House hearing featured what supporters called “the state’s youngest legislative witness,” an in utero fetus. Ultrasounds were performed at the hearing on two women who were early in their pregnancies, so legislators could see and hear the fetal hearts. People whose mothers had sought abortions that failed – labeled “abortion survivors” – were featured at another hearing.

Proponents delivered bouquets of red heart-shaped balloons and teddy bears to lawmakers, flew banners over the Statehouse and eventually turned to angry full-page ads in the Columbus newspaper.

Opponents also grew vocal. They rallied at the Statehouse during key votes, arguing the legislation could endanger the lives of women, forcing them to seek the procedure in unhealthy circumstances.

Janet Folger Porter, president of Ohio-based Faith2Action and the bill’s champion, said she was confident the legislation would be upheld in court.

“This is the closest we have ever been to protecting babies with beating hearts,” she said when it passed the House this summer. “When this passes, it will be the most protective legislation in the nation.”

Porter led a charge to line up a host of high-profile supporters. They included Cincinnati physician Jack Willke, a former president of the National Right to Life Committee and founder of the International Right to Life Federation, and Phil Burress, whose Citizens for Community Values led the charge to ban gay marriage, among others.

But Ohio Right to Life’s then-executive director, Mike Gonidakis, called it “the right idea at the wrong time.”

Battling negative publicity over its neutrality on the bill, his chapter was selected to launch a 50-state effort to pass informed-consent bills tied to the fetal heartbeat, requiring that pregnant women see and hear the rhythm before agreeing to an abortion.

Supporters of that effort said statistics show women exposed to the fetal heartbeat are far less likely to go through with an abortion.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel has released a ten-point health care blueprint as an alternative to the federal Affordable Care Act.

With just two weeks until Election Day Mandel unveiled his plan at an orthopedic private practice in Westlake. Point one of the plan is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has been a centerpiece of his campaign.

â€œSome people call it Obamacare, some people call it the Affordable health care act. I call it what I believe it is: the federal government takeover of healthcare,” Mandel said.

Several of the rest of Mandelâ€™s ten points are principles that Republicans in general have applied to health care, such as tort reform, allowing patients cross state lines to buy insurance, encouraging medical savings accounts, and giving Medicaid block grants to states. Others you donâ€™t hear so often, such as giving a tax deduction for health insurance to those who must buy it on their own. Mandel says that would help people get coverage for pre-existing conditions â€“ although he doesnâ€™t say how.

â€œThe way to provide coverage for pre-existing is not to have the federal government take over the health care system. Itâ€™s to change the tax code to make it more friendly to small businesses and to people who are self employed, and more friendly to workers who may want to move from job to job.â€

Spokesperson Sadie Weiner said it would do little to expand access to health care, and repealing the Affordable Care Act would have immediate repercussions.

â€œBig insurance companies can kick you off your plan if you get sick. Those same big insurance companies can refuse to cover you if you have a pre-existing consition, and millions of young adults would be kicked off their parents plans when they graduate and begin looking for a job if Josh Mandel has his way on this.â€

The two candidates will have their final debate of the campaign Thursday night in Cincinnati.